Medicine & Health

Nerve cells in the body and brain react in opposite ways to the loss of a protein linked to a childhood tumor syndrome, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found. The finding could be important to efforts to preserve the vision of patients with neurofibromatosis 1, a genetic condition that increases risk of benign and malignant brain tumors.

Children with sickle cell disease who also have lower blood oxygen levels while both asleep and awake are likely to have heart abnormalities, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other institutions have found.

A new Fetal Care Center has opened at Washington University Medical Center as the only comprehensive facility in the Midwest that offers advanced fetal diagnostics, surgery before and after birth and newborn medicine under one roof.

Alison Goate, PhD, has been named director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, a partnership between Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Hope Happens, a nonprofit foundation that supports research into neurodegenerative disorders.

Older adults with evidence of amyloid in the brain but no clinical symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease have structures in the brain that don’t communicate readily with each other, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings may be yet another indicator that Alzheimer’s damage to the brain begins to occur long before there are clinical symptoms of the disease.  

The sudden shortage of a nuclear weapons production byproduct that is critical to industries such as nuclear detection, oil and gas, and medical diagnostics was the focus as a House Science and Technology panel heard testimony today from a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Washington University physicians at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are seeking participants for a study comparing two treatments for blood clots in the legs known as deep vein thromboses (DVTs). 

Three faculty members of the School of Medicine will be honored by the Academy of Science of St. Louis: Randall Bateman, M. Carolyn Baum and Alan L. Schwartz.

Barry Sleckman, MD, PhD, was a busy young entrepreneur and disaffected commuter college student when his life began taking a sudden series of unexpected turns in the late 1970s.

Organisms from yeast to rodents to humans all benefit from cutting calories. In less complex organisms, restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. But researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and two other centers report in the journal Science that they are less interested in calorie restriction for longer life than for its ability to promote good health throughout life.